Just getting started, have questions

[johnami]

Hello all,

I want to get started on a degree, and my understanding is that most community and state colleges will only take part of the credits in CLEP. It appears that a few, TESC of example, will allow practically all credits to come from testing. Am I correct in this? While I would prefer a degree from a school like USF, as someone here said after 5 years no one cares where your degree came from. I have a lot of time to study, and would like to get by an cheap as possible.

Thanks for any help!

[IrishJohn]

Hello all,

I want to get started on a degree, and my understanding is that most community and state colleges will only take part of the credits in CLEP. It appears that a few, TESC of example, will allow practically all credits to come from testing. Am I correct in this? While I would prefer a degree from a school like USF, as someone here said after 5 years no one cares where your degree came from. I have a lot of time to study, and would like to get by an cheap as possible.

Thanks for any help!

You can't completely test out of a Bachelor of Arts degree from TESC anymore. A capstone course is required now. However, you can complete every other required course via CLEP, DSST, TECEP, ECE, Straighterline, ALEKS, etc. If your goal is a Bachelor of Science degree, for the BSBA at least you can still at present test out completely by combining the different options. I myself strongly suspect that this will change in a year or two, but I that's me. So if you want to do this and are asking everyone here for advice, I suppose let's start at the beginning: Why do you want a degree and what major are you interested in pursuing? Your answers would help us all in trying to assist. For now though, give this link a try: Degree Forum Wiki

[LaterBloomer]

IrishJohn, you sure about the testing thing for TESC's BSBA? Isn't there a test by TESC that can cover the capstone? It's not a DSST or CLEP, of course, but I think it will meet the capstone requirement.

[johnami]

You can't completely test out of a Bachelor of Arts degree from TESC anymore. A capstone course is required now. However, you can complete every other required course via CLEP, DSST, TECEP, ECE, Straighterline, ALEKS, etc. If your goal is a Bachelor of Science degree, for the BSBA at least you can still at present test out completely by combining the different options. I myself strongly suspect that this will change in a year or two, but I that's me. So if you want to do this and are asking everyone here for advice, I suppose let's start at the beginning: Why do you want a degree and what major are you interested in pursuing? Your answers would help us all in trying to assist. For now though, give this link a try: Degree Forum Wiki

Thanks! After being in business for hundreds of years (sometime it seems that long), I want to get a degree. My primary reason is job related, I want to re-enter my old industry and an Associates at least is almost a must. Major will be most likely Business Admin.

Thanks!

[ryoder]

johnami - Go for the BSBA at TESC. It is extremely testable but you will use straighterline, DSST, CLEP, and TECEPs to finish it. Thats fine because those are all great sources of credit. If you want to map the whole thing out then read read read but if you want to get started I would recommend buying the REA Clep Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, plus REA Management and Marketing books right now.
Those were my first 4 tests and they set the pace for my degree completion very well.

Good luck.

[johnami]

johnami - Go for the BSBA at TESC. It is extremely testable but you will use straighterline, DSST, CLEP, and TECEPs to finish it. Thats fine because those are all great sources of credit. If you want to map the whole thing out then read read read but if you want to get started I would recommend buying the REA Clep Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, plus REA Management and Marketing books right now.
Those were my first 4 tests and they set the pace for my degree completion very well.

Good luck.

Thanks for your input. That is about what I had concluded. The TESC ASBA, then the BSBA from there. I will look into the suggested books.

[LaterBloomer]

...and consider joining InstaCert.

[IrishJohn]

For the BSBA, their course "Business Policy" is considered to be the capstone. However, at present you can take "Strategic Business Management" via Penn Foster and transfer it in or take the TECEP exam of the same name. I strongly suspect they'll change that in a year or two so that you'll have to take it through them, though they might let you still do the TECEP. Hard to say but now that they require the Liberal Arts capstone for the BA majors, which you can't transfer in or test out of, it really makes no sense why they wouldn't be stricter with their BS and business degrees.

[IrishJohn]

Thanks! After being in business for hundreds of years (sometime it seems that long), I want to get a degree. My primary reason is job related, I want to re-enter my old industry and an Associates at least is almost a must. Major will be most likely Business Admin.

Thanks!

I understand, I'm sort of in the same boat thanks to this lovely lil' recession we're having. I already completed a BA in History back in 2010 but after being laid-off discovered quickly it didn't help much in my career. Shame really because I was planning on starting my master's, but alas. So now I too am finishing a BSBA. Depending upon how much time you can devote to this, you can finish it quickly. This is especially true if you have any transferrable previous college credits. I'd recommend ALEKS for the math credits, CLEP & DANTES/DSST for most of the courses you feel comfortable testing out of, Straighterline for those you aren't very comfortable testing out of, Penn Foster for the capstone unless you feel comfortable with the TECEP, and finally a TECEP or ECE for that last upper level course you'll need that the other sources I mentioned don't seem to have.

[IrishJohn]

Thanks for your input. That is about what I had concluded. The TESC ASBA, then the BSBA from there. I will look into the suggested books.

Unless you need the Associate's right away for work, I'd recommend skipping it. Why pay TESC twice when you could finish a bachelor's in a year or so? You don't even have to officially enroll, i.e. pay them, until you have most of the credits completed anyways. Also, check out the study resources at the link I gave you above. There are quite a number out there and give IC a try.